I do not own The Host. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. Hope you like it. Please review :)

The next few weeks passed without any real drama. I left the bug alone just like I said I would. I didn't really spend much time around it though. And because Ian followed it around even more than he had before, I didn't see him very much either. Except at night.

I was back in my room, now. Ian had kicked me out after... the incident. He had wanted to give our room to the worm, but Jared wasn't so fond of that idea. So now, the alien is sharing a room with Jared and Jamie, and Ian won't stop complaining about it to me. I told him I didn't really care, but then he started going off on me about how I tried to kill her... It was better just to listen to his complaining.

Jared had gone out on a raid with a few others. It was a small raid; they were just replacing some tools. They were back within a week.

I was sitting in the kitchen eating lunch when Jeb came walking in. "Kyle, Jared and the others are back. They need your help in the hospital."

I nodded and hopped down of the counter. Before I knew it I was in the hospital wing. I rounded the corner and saw the kid, Jamie, sitting on one of the cots.

"What happened?" I asked Jared, who was standing next to the cot along with Trudy.

"He fell," Jared said at the same time Jamie said, "Cut myself with a knife."

I didn't have a problem putting two and two together and quickly turned my attention back to Jared. "What do you need?"

"Come with me," he said, walking towards the small entrance in the back of the room and I followed. He lowered his voice a little when he continued. "We've got a couple of bodies with us. Go outside and help Geoffrey and Travis bring them in."

"Alright," I shrugged, climbing into the small tunnel.

It took us a few minutes to get the bodies in through the tiny hole. As much as I hoped that Doc would be able to figure this out one day, I hated this part. Dragging corpses, or what were soon to be corpses, wasn't the funnest thing to do. It was slightly creepy, especially in this small space.

By the time we got back inside, Jamie and Trudy had left. I guess Jared didn't want the kid to see this kind of thing. We got both bodies set up and Doc went right to work. It didn't take long for him to fail. He tried so hard but nothing he did seemed to work. He fell to his knees and began sobbing. Jeb, who had been standing in the corner, went over to him and started rubbing his back. It was awkward, Jeb wasn't very good with displays of emotion.

Jared and I covered the bodies and began cleaning. There was a silver slime covering everything. It was on the blankets, cots, walls... it was even all over Doc. We were just moving a stretcher next to the cot when we heard it.

A blood curdling scream from the doorway. It sounded like someone was being murdered. Whipping my head around, I saw it. It was standing in the doorway screaming its lungs out.

"Wanda..." Jeb said, he was calm, but i thought I saw an anxious gleam in his eyes.

It spun around in a slow circle, looking confused. Then it ran directly into a wall. Jared ran over and held her down.

"Doc, help!" Jared yelled.

"What's wrong with her?" Jeb questioned.

"Is it having a fit?" I asked, coming over to stand behind Jared.

She was thrashing around. Maybe it was sick, having a seziure.

"What did she see?" Doc demanded.

"Nothing--nothing. The bodies were covered." Jared answered. He seemed worried.

It was confusing, none of us knew what was happening or how to help it. We were just standing there, staring at it.

"Wanda? Can you here me?" Doc tried.

"Is she conscious?" Jeb asked.

"I think she's going to throw up," Doc said. He was right. She twisted in Jared's arms and he held her head steady while she vomited.

"What do we do, Doc?" Jared asked.

"Hold onto her -- don't let her hurt herself. "

It continued to try to twist free of Jared's hold. It coughed a few times before being able to speak. "Let me go! Get away from me! Get away; your monsters! Torturers!" it screamed.

Jared tried to calm it. "Calm down, Wanda! Shh! It's okay!"

"Monster!" it screamed again.

"She's hysterical. Hold on," Doc said. And then he slapped her across the face, trying to bring her back to reality.

Someone gasped from over by the door, but none of us turned to see who it was. We were concentrating on the bug. It wasn't until Ian spoke that we realized it was him.

"What are you doing?" he shouted. And then the alien fainted.

"It's having a seizure or something, Ian. Doc's trying to bring it around," I tried to explain, but from the look on his face he wasn't having any of it.

Ian dashed across the room, pushing me and Jared out of the way. He took a quick look around the room and then scowled. He shook his head and gently picked her up off the floor where she was laying. Cradling her against his chest, he turned and left, not saying a word to anyone.

Jared stood there for a few seconds. It looked like he was contemplating something. Then he followed Ian into the dark southern passage. I decided to stay and help Doc and Jeb finish cleaning.

It wasn't until a little later that the panic set in. Ian came into the hospital shouting something I couldn't understand. He was breathing heavily like he had been running.

"Slow down, Ian. Breathe," Doc suggested.

"Wanda..." he panted. "She's gone. I can't find her anywhere."

Jeb's usually cool demeanor looked a little shaken. Was he regretting his decision to keep her here? I had told him time after time...

"Get everybody looking for her. She doesn't know the way out, so she's gotta be here somewhere. But just in case, Kyle, start looking outside as well," Jeb commanded.

It took a few hours before they finally found it. It had been hiding in the game room the whole time. I was just glad it didn't get out.

Jared told everyone that the game room was off limits until it decided to come out. He explained to Jeb, Doc and myself that the reason it freaked out was because it saw the alien bodies Doc had ripped out of the humans. I guess that would be a reason to scream and run away, but after a couple of days it was getting ridiculous.

It stayed in the game room for three days, and Ian stayed there right along with it. He would only leave for a few minutes a day to get it something to eat, but every night he would bring out a still full tray. He looked terrible. He wasn't eating or sleeping very much. When I tried to ask him why he was doing this to himself, he gave me a dirty look and walked away.

Meanwhile, Jamie's leg wound became infected. Jared was beside himself, but Doc assured him that the kid would be alright. Eventually, Jeb managed to convince the parasite to come out of the dark room and visit Jamie.

There was nothing Doc could do. The only way to treat an infection was with antibiotics and there weren't anymore of those. But We couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Ian, Jared and I went on a raid. We stayed close by, trying to be as fast as possible. The kid needed help right away. We looked everywhere, but there were no antibiotics to be found. We had to settle on going back with some ice we stole from a convenience store. It wasn't much, but maybe it would help get Jamie's fever down.

When we got back to the caves we all gathered in Jared's room. None of us wanted anything to happen to Jamie, but sometimes bad things happen and it's beyond your control. We were explaining to Doc how there just weren't any antibiotics left anymore, when the parasite interrupted.

"Jamie needs real medicines. The ones the souls have. We need to get him those." She had been very quiet since we got back and everyone seemed startled by her words.

"But we don't even know what those things do, how they work," Doc responded.

"Does it matter? They do work. They can save him," it said. It sounded angry. I had never seen it get angry before. I stared at her, along with everyone else in the room.

"We can't get 'em, Wanda. We can only get into deserted places. There's always a bunch of your kind in a hospital. Twenty-four hours a day. Too many eyes. We won't do Jamie any good if we get caught," Jeb said. He sounded sad, defeated.

"Sure. The centipedes will be only too happy to heal his body when the find us here. And make him one of them. Is that what your after?" I asked, my voice deadly serious. I promised I wouldn't hurt it, but only if it didn't do anything to harm us.

She turned towards me then. She was glaring at me, leaning forward. It looked like she would attack me, but Ian grabbed her shoulder, holding her back.

"There has to be a way," she finally said.

"Maybe someplace small, the gun would make too much noise, but if there were enough of us to overwhelm them, we could use knives," Jared pondered.

"No. No. That's not what I meant. Not killing --" The parasite looked shocked. She wanted us to stroll into a hospital with no weapons? Did she honestly think we'd agree to something so suicidal?

"There's no way, kid. Somebody'd get a call of to the Seekers. Even if we were in and out, something like that would bring 'em down on is in force. We'd be hard-pressed to make it out at all. And they'd follow," Jeb said.

"Wait, can't you --" the bug started to say, but I cut her off.

"I don't want the boy to die, either, but we can't risk everyone's lives for one person. People die here; it happens. We can't get crazy to save one boy." It was true and they all knew it. I wished there was something I could do to save the kid, but there wasn't anything to do. What they were talking about was suicide for whoever went, and murder for those who stayed behind.

"We have to save him," the parasite almost shouted. It was mad.

"Hon, we can't just walk in there and ask," Jeb told it.

Everyone was staring at it. Was it angry because we wouldn't save the kid? It spent a lot of time with Jamie, but did it actually care for him the way everyone here seemed to think it did?

And then it was as if something clicked in it's brain. A light in it's eyes. A spark of hope. "You can't, but I can," it said, staring out into space. It was totally engrossed in whatever plan it had come up with.

It still looked dazed when it started speaking again."They aren't suspicious. Not at all. Even if I'm a horrible liar, they would never suspect me of anything. They wouldn't be listening for lies. Of course not. I'm one of them. They would do anything to help me. I'd say I got hurt hiking or something… and then I'd find a way to be alone and I'd take as much as I could hide. Think of it! I could get enough to heal everyone here. To last for years..."

It continued talking but I didn't hear it. I couldn't believe what it was saying. Did it really think we were that stupid? Did it really think we would just hand it over to the parasites so it could tell them all about its little adventure with the humans? Did it honestly think we would ever trust it?

I was staring at it, all my hatred burning in my eyes. I was sorry I had promised not to kill it. It looked around the room and saw that no one was falling for it's tricks.

"Please. It's the only way to save him," It lied.

"Patient, isn't it? Bided its time well, don't you think?" I said what everyone else in the room was thinking.

"Doc?" It begged. Like he was stupid enough to agree with it. Not even Jeb looked like he was buying the act.

"Even if there was any way we could let you outside, Wanda… I just couldn't trust drugs I don't understand. Jamie's a tough kid. His system will fight this off," Doc replied.

"We'll go out again, Wanda. We'll find something. We won't come back until we do," Ian tried to comfort it. I didn't care, as long as he could see that it was a bad idea to let it out. As long as he could see what it was trying to do.

"That's not good enough." It was crying now. "Jared. You know. You know I would never let anything hurt Jamie. You know I can do this. Please."

Jared looked around the room. Everyone was glaring at him. Telling him no without using words. Even the people who seemed to like the bug were afraid of it now. They knew as well as I did what would happen if it got out. If Jared agreed, there would be a fight. There was no way I was letting that thing out.

"No, Wanda. No." Jared whispered and everyone in the caves let out a simultaneous breath. They were all as relieved as I was. I was glad Jared could get past his emotions about the boy and see what was really going on here.

The parasite fell to its knees, wriggling free of Ian's grasp, when he tried to pull it back up. Crawling over to Jamie, it pressed a compress to the boy's head. The tears were streaming from its eyes now and it was whispering, "Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie."

Happy that they were finally seeing things for what they were, I left the room and everyone else followed, leaving the bug to stew over its failed plan. As much as I wanted to believe that that thing could actually care about whether a human lived or died, I knew it couldn't. It couldn't care enough to do what it said. It couldn't be trusted.

Everyone tried to go on the rest of the day like nothing was wrong, but you could see it in their faces. It was sad that the boy might die, but we couldn't do anything else for him. We all went to sleep that night with heavy hearts, knowing he might not be there when we woke up. The boy was there when I was woken up. But Jared and the parasite weren't.

"...can't believe Jared would do that," Doc's voice jolted me awake.

"He's just concerned about the kid," Jeb was saying. "You can't really blame the man for that."

"No, but he didn't need to use the chloroform on me," Doc said.

"Would we have let him leave with Wanda otherwise?"

I jumped up from my mattress and ripped the door away from the entrance.

"What..." I had woken Ian up.

"What happened? Where is the parasite?" I yelled.

Jeb and Doc were standing in the hall outside of Jared's room. They looked surprised that I had heard them.

"What?" Ian boomed. I rolled my eyes. He was only concerned with that bug. He didn't care that she was about to give us all up to the Seekers.

"Jared chloroformed Doc and left with Wanda, maybe a half hour ago,"Jeb answered. He looked anxious. He was scared of what would happen now.

"He just left with her," Ian said, shaking his head. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "If anything happens to her, I swear..."

"Ian, I don't think she's the one in danger here. The Seekers will be coming," I said through gritted teeth. He was so blind.

"Wanda would never do that, Kyle," Ian said. "She would never."

"You're even stupider than I thought," I hissed.

Ian's eyes narrowed and he took a step towards me.

"Now, everyone just calm down, ya hear me?" Jeb ordered.

Ian sighed, but took a step back. I turned to Jeb then, wanting to know what his plan was.

"Well, what are we going to do?" I asked.

"We're gonna wait and see what happens," Jeb answered.

Wait and see. That was the plan. We were just going to wait until the Seekers came for us.

Why didn't I kill it when I had the chance? I asked myself.